I am going to be making some chocolate cupcakes for easter and I got my hands on some hazelnut praline paste that I would like to incorporate into the filling for the cupcakes.

I would like to incorporate it into a light whipped ganache except I find the whipped ganache too rich.  Is it possible to decrease the amount of chocolate in Rose’s recipe?  Would it still work?

Also, any suggestions for one of Rose’s recipes that produce nice moist chocolate cupcakes?

Liza, I believe you can decrease the chocolate in ganache.  Yes, it would still work it would just be lighter.  Rose has a chart in RHC that lists the ratio of heavy cream to chocolate (depending on what kind of chocolate).  I see no reason you cannot just increase that difference.  I have done it in small amount. 

I like the DPC cake (the one used for german chocolate) and for designer baby grands.

Liza - 18 March 2013 09:49 PM

I am going to be making some chocolate cupcakes for easter and I got my hands on some hazelnut praline paste that I would like to incorporate into the filling for the cupcakes.

Praline paste, superyum!

Is it possible to decrease the amount of chocolate in Rose’s recipe?

It’s better to decrease the chocolate liquor percentage (I like Callebaut dark or anything about 50%) than the amount of chocolate.  It might work to sub the praline paste for part of the chocolate (or part of the sugar in the chocolate), but I’d try a very small test batch first to make sure it will still set and whip properly.  I know that adding nut oil to whipped cream makes it much harder to whip, hopefully the cocoa butter in the chocolate would keep that from happening.

Also, any suggestions for one of Rose’s recipes that produce nice moist chocolate cupcakes?

I like the deep chocolate passion. The Domingo is also nice, especially when paired with nuts/caramel. 

All that said, my choice for the hazelnut paste would probably be the chocolate praline silk meringue buttercream, it’s yummy. But it’s a lot more work than ganache.  For ganache, you’ll probably need to add quite a bit of the praline paste to balance the relatively strong chocolate flavor.

Delicious!!! I haven’t been baking for awhile so this is making me drool!!! 

One thing you may want to consider is the praline paste is often sweetened so you may want to keep an eye on the sweetness level.  Agreed with the Chocolate Praline Silk Meringue BC ...

Thanks for all your input.  I found a recipe from martha stewart which is basically a whipped cream filling with the added praline paste stabilzed with gelatin.  I think that I will try that with Rose’s super stabilzed whipped cream recipe and add cocoa powder to the whipped cream before I whip it.

I like the deep chocolate passion cake too Julie.  Just love that spongy texture!  I will probably go with that for the cupcakes.

Now only if I could get my darn cupcakes to dome.